Driving home, last Saturday night, after kibbutzing with friends, I was listening to Con Salsa on WBUR, like I usually do, to extend the revelry of the evening. As if to remind me that the joy of revelry gets its heart from the tragedies woven into its rhythms, the host talked about the killing of Puerto Rican nationalist Filiberto Ojeda Ríos by the FBI. I knew nothing about him, and know very little about Puerto Rican nationalism, which, I'd guess, is true of most Americans.

Among the many news stories about this incident, CNN's had the headline, "Domestic terror suspect dies in FBI standoff," with the following explanation, referring to Ojeda Ríos' alleged involvement in a Wells Fargo depot robbery of $7.2 million dollars in West Hartford, Connecticut:

The robbery is considered an act of domestic terrorism because it allegedly was carried out by 19 members of the Puerto Rican nationalist Macheteros, or Cane Cutters. The federal government believes most of the money was used in Puerto Rico to finance the independence movement.

I must be one of those "Stupid Americans" that I keep hearing about. I can't tell what makes this robbery an act of "terrorism." That it was carried out by 19 people, as opposed to 15 or 22? That they were called "Macheteros," which wouldn't be allowed in the passenger cabin of any airplane? That the money was believed to be used "to finance the independence movement"? I think I know, though, why the following, mentioned at the end of the story, isn't considered an act of terror:

The group also claimed responsibility for the 1981 bombing of 11 military planes at a U.S. National Guard base in Puerto Rico. Two marines were killed.

Firstly, because I don't think planes can feel terror, and I'm certain that the U.S. military cannot be terrorized either. Secondly, because, even though the death of the two marines is tragic, if that would make this bombing an act of terror, then the collateral damage in Iraq would make the ongoing U.S. military operations there an act of terror as well, which, of course they are not. If they were, then the U.S. would certainly keep track of how many Iraqis constitute the "collateral damage" in this nation that it's building.

The Washington Post reported:

According to the FBI, agents had been watching for several days the farmhouse where Ojeda Rios was hiding, and decided to move in after they were spotted by someone inside. As agents approached the front door about 4:30 p.m., the FBI said, Ojeda Rios opened it and began shooting, hitting one agent in the stomach.

A gun battle followed. In all, local authorities have said, the FBI left 110 spent shell casings, and Ojeda Rios 18. When the shooting stopped, the agents waited, fearful that the house was rigged with explosives. A backup team did not arrive until 4 a.m. Saturday, almost 12 hours after the shootout began, and no one entered the house for eight more hours.

They found Ojeda Rios dressed in combat boots and a bulletproof vest, with 12 bullets in his gun and 15 more in reserve. An autopsy found that he bled to death from a single bullet wound.

An investigation has been promised by Puerto Rican Justice Secretary Roberto Sanchez Ramos, who said he was convinced that Ojeda Rios could have been saved if the agents had not waited to enter the home.

"How is it," Sanchez Ramos asked, "that three days after the stakeout, they lack the personnel and equipment to finish the raid?"

A member of the Real (as opposed to So Called) Liberal Media interviewed Puerto Rican political analyst and radio host Juan-Manuel Garcia-Passalacqua:

What happened was that the special team of the Federal Bureau of Investigations entered Filiberto Ojeda's home in a rural barrio in the town of Hormigueros by crashing the gate and shooting one hundred times against the house. Filiberto then put on his fatigues and his boots and responded the fire with ten shots. And the number of -- the number of spent cartridges shows that he was shooting ten times, and the F.B.I. was shooting a hundred times.

After that, again, none of the hundred shots caught him, but a sharpshooter that was located on a high ground, maybe in a helicopter, shot him with a single bullet through again his neck or his -- place near the face. And he fell, and then for 12 solid hours, the F.B.I. refused to enter or let anyone enter the house waiting for Filiberto Ojeda Rios to bleed to death, which is exactly what the coroner certified this morning that Filiberto Ojeda Rios died of a single wound brought because of bleeding caused by that wound that lasted for hours without any medical or any other help. So, once again, it is clear this was a political assassination.

We know, don't we, that the U.S. has no imperial or colonial claim to stake here? So, why did the FBI decide to create such a gruesome spectacle on the day when Puerto Ricans were commemorating their historic anti-colonial uprising?

On Sept. 23, as hundreds of workers and their families were participating in the annual pro-independence commemoration known as �El Grito de Lares,� agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation descended on the town of Hormigueros in western Puerto Rico and fired the shots that killed Puerto Rican liberation hero Filiberto Ojeda Ríos.

El Grito de Lares�The Cry of Lares�marks the historic 1868 uprising carried out by peasants and workers against Spanish colonial rule. This rebellion is considered the birth of the Puerto Rican nation.

[media | Filiberto Ojeda Ríos | terrorism | FBI | Puerto Rico | colonialism]

9:46:50 PM